by Melani Manel Perera

Jeyakumari Balendaran was released on March 10 after a year in prison. Proof against her has never emerged. Latest charge is of stealing or having witnessed the theft of two mine detectors. Until September 16, she can be released on bail.

Colombo (AsiaNews) - Tamil activist Jeyakumari Balendaran, 50 year-old woman freed on bail on 10 March after 362 days spent in jail, was imprisoned again yesterday. Police in Weli-Oya released a new arrest warrant against the woman on the night of September 1. The officers then ordered the woman to appear before the judiciary with a guarantor. When Jeyakumari came to the court with her brother, she was taken into custody for not having presented two guarantors.

Against the advice of the police, the magistrate set two bails, one of 25 thousand rupees (about 165 Euros) in cash, and a guarantee of 100 thousand rupees. The woman can be freed up to September 16, the date of the first hearing. Her lawyer has assured she will be bailed out today.

The Tamil activist was arrested under code B / 35/2014, for the theft of two mine detectors. Two other people were detained for the same indictment. According to the police, both are former militants of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). It is unclear at present whether Jeyakumari is accused of stealing them or of being a witness of the infringement.

Several human rights activists living in the north of the island told AsiaNews that "it is very strange that, although Jeyakumary lived in Kilinochchi the last three months, going every last Sunday of the month to sign on with the police, the officers said nothing about the charges against her".

Jeyakumari Balendaran is one of the leaders of the Families of the Disappeared (FOD), active in the country to shed light on the "state disappearance" of Tamils. She lost her husband and two adult sons in the Civil War. A third son disappeared into thin air in 2009, at the end of the conflict. On 15 March 2014 police and military surrounded her house and took her away with her 13 year old daughter accused of having"given refuge to a criminal." Evidence against Jeyakumari  never emerged. Since her arrest, his daughter Vibhusjika has lived in an orphanage in northern Sri Lanka.

After her release last March, she lived in Jaffna for one or two months, before returning home to Kilinochchi. Her daughter, continues to live and go to school at the Children's Home in the north, and returns home to her mother only for the August holidays.

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• disappearances